Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise
The Twilight of Servitude
André Tosel
Edited and translated by David Maruzzella, Bradley Ramos
Originally published in 1984, André Tosel’s ground-breaking first book on Spinoza represents a landmark in 20th-century French Spinoza scholarship
- Offers the first and only book length translation of André Tosel into English
- Provides an accessible introduction to Spinoza’s philosophy by way of his controversial Theologico-Political Treatise
- Includes important historical context for the development and flourishing of studies on Spinoza’s materialism and the relation between Spinoza and Marx
Tosel, one of the first thinkers to pursue the systematic study of Spinoza’s relation to Marx, provides an innovative and accessible reading of Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise as a way of entering into Spinoza’s notoriously difficult philosophical system.
A manifesto for intellectual and political liberation, Tosel explores how Spinoza strategically intervened in the theologico-political debates of the late 17th century in order to galvanise the nascent philosophical powers of heterodox Christians living in the Dutch Republic.
Complete with a substantial introduction written by the translators, this English translation introduces Anglophone readers to Tosel’s important scholarship – which arguably went the furthest in systematically investigating the connections between Spinoza, Marxism and materialism famously signalled by Tosel’s teacher Louis Althusser – through his first major publication.
Abbreviations
Translators’ Introduction: Emancipatory Emendatio: Tosel, Spinoza and the Critical History of Scripture
Prologue: The Theologico-Political Treatise, or the Manifesto for a Philosophy of Liberation
Chapter 1: Against Superstition, Intellectual and Moral Reform
Chapter 2: Superstition and Reading
Chapter 3: A Sketch of a Critical History of the Theologico-Political Treatise
Chapter 4: From the Critique of the Bible to the Critique of Revealed Religion
Chapter 5: Critique of Revelation and Prophecy
Chapter 6: A New Treatise on Law, or the Underground Ethics of the Theologico-Political Treatise
Chapter 7: The End of Miracles, The End of the Supernatural
Chapter 8: The Problem of the Specificity of Christianity
Chapter 9: From Practical Faith to the Refoundation of Politics
Conclusion: Theory and Transformation of the Theologico-Political Field
Works Cited
Index
